How many civil and criminal lawsuits did Donald Trump face before his 2017 inauguration?
Executive summary
Available sources do not give a single, authoritative count of how many civil and criminal lawsuits Donald Trump faced before his 2017 inauguration; reporting and trackers catalogue dozens to thousands of matters depending on scope and methodology (e.g., USA TODAY’s deep dive counts “thousands” over decades) [1]. Legal trackers assembled after 2017 focus on actions involving the Trump administration and high‑profile pending civil and criminal matters rather than a definitive pre‑inauguration tally [2] [3].
1. What “before his 2017 inauguration” can mean—and why counts differ
The phrase can mean (a) lawsuits filed against Trump personally up to Jan. 20, 2017; (b) civil suits related to Trump Organization entities; or (c) the aggregate of every case he or his businesses touched over decades. Sources show trackers and news outlets use different definitions. USA TODAY’s investigation treats Trump as an extraordinarily litigious figure with “thousands of lawsuits over three decades,” a framing that far exceeds any single pre‑2017 snapshot [1]. Lawfare and Just Security trackers instead emphasize litigation tied to the administration’s actions after inauguration, so they do not provide a pre‑inauguration count [3] [2].
2. High‑profile pre‑2017 matters flagged in public reporting
Contemporary reporting and encyclopedic summaries list a number of notable suits that were active by or before early 2017: the defamation claim by Summer Zervos filed on January 17, 2017; numerous business and employment disputes tied to Trump Organization properties; and long‑running commercial litigation involving Trump businesses [4] [5]. These examples show that multiple civil cases were active at the moment he became president, but the sources do not add up to a definitive numeric total [4] [5].
3. Why a simple number is elusive: differing counting rules
Different outlets and legal trackers apply distinct counting rules. Just Security’s tracker, for instance, treats appeals as part of the same case and consolidates related filings so that a cluster of challenges can be counted as “one case” [2]. Conversely, investigative projects such as USA TODAY’s count each lawsuit in which Trump or his entities were a party across decades, producing a much larger figure [1]. Media summaries (AP, Axios, Politico) focus on major criminal indictments and civil suits in the news cycle rather than a comprehensive historical inventory [6] [7] [8].
4. Criminal cases vs. civil cases: pre‑2017 landscape
Available sources do not list any major criminal convictions against Trump before his 2017 inauguration, and post‑2017 criminal prosecutions referenced in later reporting are framed as events that happened after he left or during later political life [6]. The pre‑2017 legal landscape described in the sources is dominated by civil litigation—defamation, business disputes, employment and contract suits tied to Trump and Trump Organization entities [4] [5]. Sources do not provide a clean numerical split of civil versus criminal filings up to Jan. 20, 2017 (not found in current reporting).
5. What trackers and retrospectives actually document
Trackers mentioned (Just Security, Lawfare) primarily catalog litigation against the Trump administration or litigation after 2017 and adopt conservative counting methods—e.g., consolidating appeals and related filings into single entries [2] [3]. Retrospectives and investigative projects (USA TODAY) emphasize volume and pattern across decades, concluding that Trump has been involved in an unusually high number of lawsuits—“thousands”—but they do not isolate a precise pre‑inauguration count in the cited excerpts [1].
6. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas
Data compilations can reflect editorial choices and institutional aims. Legal trackers aim for legal precision and continuity (minimizing double‑counting across appeals) and are useful for litigation‑by‑litigation monitoring [2] [3]. Investigative journalism projects highlight scale and public interest—portraying Trump as exceptionally litigious—useful for political and reputational context but less useful for a strict legal tally [1]. Users seeking a single number should note these methodological differences and the agendas implicit in both approaches.
7. Bottom line and next steps if you need a firm figure
Available sources do not provide a single authoritative number of civil and criminal lawsuits Trump faced before his 2017 inauguration (not found in current reporting). To produce a defensible count you would need a clear definition (which parties to include, whether to count appeals, how to treat related corporate entities), then consult primary court dockets across jurisdictions or a comprehensive database that documents every case by those rules [2] [1].